Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has backed Steven Gerrard to get it right at Aston Villa, but warned the underfire boss that ‘you have to be careful’ about the outside noise, as he told Premier League Productions (16/10/22 at 7:20 pm).
Aston Villa are one point above the Premier League’s relegation zone after ten Premier League games, following their 2-0 home defeat to Chelsea on Sunday and the Liverpool legend is increasingly facing a bleak future.
Whilst Villa’s most recent display was far more encouraging, for most parts, Gerrard’s side have struggled to break teams down and they have been unable to keep clean sheets.
When Dean Smith was sacked last November, the Midlands club were two points above the drop zone, and with less than a month remaining before Gerrard’s one-year anniversary, the team and club have gone backwards under his stewardship.
There were grumblings of ‘we want Gerrard out’ and the home fans clapping the Chelsea away supporters when they started to sing to the former Liverpool midfielder ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’.
The Villa Park faithful have made their feelings clear and those noises will only grow during these coming weeks, as his former manager shared his thoughts on Gerrard’s future.
“It doesn’t matter what you say because, at the end, they will point at you,” said Benitez. “I think he’s doing the right thing. He’s saying what he has to say and taking responsibility, and that’s it.
“I still think they have a good team and think they can do better, so if they have this patience and confidence in him, then I think he will do well. But you never know. He was right when he was saying and telling the players ‘listen, I will take responsibility, don’t be worried and keep fighting for the fans’, so he is saying the right thing.
“Now he has to be calm. When people talk too much around you, it’s when you have to make decisions. It’s when I say that experience is a big difference. You have to analyse what’s going on, what you can do, and if you can change anything or not.
“We are talking about changing the system when you are winning (re Potter and Chelsea), so these kinds of decisions, you have to be careful. Then, you start to change and listen to too many people and you start to make mistakes.”
BIG WEEK AHEAD FOR GERRARD
Aston Villa will travel to the capital to take on newly-promoted and free-scoring Fulham on Thursday night in what could prove to be a big, big game in Gerrard’s future.
Whilst that will be an away fixture, if the team don’t pick up three points, then the pressure will well and truly be on the former Rangers boss this Sunday.
That’s when Villa welcome Thomas Frank’s Brentford to B6, and if things go wrong in that match, then there is no doubt that the fans will well and truly turn on the Englishman.
Whatever happens, this appointment has been beyond abject in every sense, and the last time Villa made such a poor start to the season, they ended up in the Championship.
It’s time to get rid, simple as that!
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